Piercings
by DaughterOfStarlight
Summary: It had started, as usual, with Paul. Soon all the Boys were begging to get their ears pierced, and Star was happy to oblige. Pre-Michael family fluff, some David/Star angst. COMPLETE.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello freaky darlings! Saw the Lost Boys as an adult for the first time yesterday, and it brought back all sorts of youthful memories of campy terror and fashion lust. My favorite was of course, the single earring worn by all the vamps in the gang (I currently have a bronze feather dangling from my right ear that my mom's been screaming at me to take out for three days) and I found myself wondering how that little touchstone came to be. This is a study of our favorite undead family, and there will be four chapters, one for each Lost Boy, focusing on their relationship with Star. **

**Please read and review, or I'll sick the sparkly Twilight fairies on you and keep the real vamps for myself. Enjoy ;)**

It had been an afterthought, a fleeting act of defiance. She had jammed the hot needle rebelliously through her earlobe the night she had taken up with her new family, banishing memories of the old. Her daddy, the mortal one who's company she had been subjected to for countless years, had forbidden her from ever getting her ears pierced, much less anything else. But that was before she ran away. Before the twisted oblivion of immortality beckoning to her. Before David.

She had known what was coming, known what the Boys were long before she made the choice to become one of them. But she didn't care; she chose only to see the beguiling romanticism in the scenario, effectively ignoring the darkness leering at her from blood-stained shadows. So it was no great surprise to anyone involved the night she drank of David's blood and was joined to them. Besides, she had been singled out early on, and not as dinner, surprisingly.

Max had felt like he was losing control of the Boys to David, that they were hitting some sort of rebellious streak (If any more rebellion was possible at this point). Paul, Dwayne, even stubborn little Marco would, if it came down to it, ally themselves with their charismatic brother and against their sire. What the Boys needed, Max decided, was a mother. His mind was made up for him the day he saw pretty Star sashaying outside the shop, stooping low to ask a grimy youth where his parents were. A natural protector, already enfolding waifs into her loving arms. The literary quality didn't escape him either. A motherly Wendy to corral his Lost Boys, maybe even challenge the rule of his sullen Peter…How perfect.

He should have known better.

The plan wasn't necessarily a bad one, and in retrospect, executed quite nicely. He had merely pushed her in the Boy's direction, made some thinly veiled suggestions, and they had done the rest. Paul had put her at ease with his good-natured flirting, Marco had smiled re-assuringly, and Dwayne had behaved himself perfectly, even gave her little street urchin a ride on his bike. But David, oh David had sold it. His quietly assured charisma had drawn her in like a moth to the flame, and he had treated her to the best of his heart-breaking charm, which people usually didn't realize was poisonous until he was tearing their throats out.

She had come willingly, and despite the Boy's initial suspicion of the outsider in their midst, she had been assimilated unnaturally fast. They all liked her. They listened to her. She even managed to talk them out of a few unnecessarily (more than usual) foolhardy ideas. But as usual, the unaccounted-for variable, the corrupting factor, was David.

He had seen Max's game coming a mile away, and bored and annoyed by such a _mortal_ notion, had toyed with the idea of "accidentally" breaking the new toy given to them by their surrogate father. But there was something in her gypsy smile and sultry eyes that he liked, wanted to bottle up and keep in a jar by the window. So he kept her, but not without first making sure she was no threat to his operation. He had with a few light touches, murmured words, and withering glances gently goaded her into submission, wrapped her tightly around his finger. She enjoyed being his favorite, his Star of David, as the introspectively inclined Dwayne would often mutter to an otherwise uninterested Paul. She would not for the world challenge this beautiful creature who's acceptance she so craved.

But despite this (and the immanent threat of David's understatedly terrifying wrath should they cross him) the other three vampires remained somewhat loyal to Star. The girl had no backbone, but she was coy and good-natured and quite pretty besides. She was a flowed plucked and pressed into a book in the flush of youth, and even the most jaded of the group recognized her wilting enthusiasm at an undying eternity of darkness. The initial shock was understandable.

They all had their little ways of showing her she was accepted, of trying to ease the transition without coming across as pansies or pissing off David. Plus, if he ever got tired of her or if she ever managed to shake off his spell, the three others wanted to assure her that they were there to offer her whatever 'comfort' she may require. As stated above, she was quite pretty.

The simplest of these little nudges were the earrings. It had started, as usual, with Paul and a fight. In his defense, Marco had swung first, but he _had _been asking for it. Star had just secured the dangling string of beads and feathers in her right ear when she heard the ruckus and jumped to her feet, yanking back the curtains from her bed. They had been a gift from David in one of his more affectionate moments, something feminine that doubled as a barrier between what little space was hers and the rest of the cave.

Star padded silently across the rock floor of the cave, sprinting over to the bonfire and preparing her to scream at whoever was making trouble to take it outside. But by the time she got there, the fight was already over. Marco and Paul were swearing at each-other good-naturedly over beers, and Dwayne stood off to the side with a subtle smile on his face, grateful he didn't have to break anything up. David was laughing, head thrown back, incisors glinting in the firelight.

"What happened?" She asked, baffled.

David smirked at her. "The usual. Something about a girl and a guitar. C'mere, Star."

She dutifully obliged, letting him wrap an arm around her and snuggling down in the familiar warmth of his greatcoat. He smelled like cigarette smoke, leather, blood, and old lace. I settled her stomach. She hated it when the boys fought. They could of course go at each other all day and hardly leave a dent, but she was new to the whole 'invincible' thing.

About ten minuets passed without incident, but then Paul fell silent, staring intently at Star. The open want in his eyes unnerved her, but David was too busy daring Marco to go jump off Hudson's Bluff to notice.

"What?" She demanded finally.

"I want one," He muttered, half to himself.

David did hear this and glanced over, still grinning. "Huh?"

Paul gestured sloppily (and unwisely) to all of Star. "I want one. Just like that."  
>The grin disappeared in an instant. The head vampire released Star, taking two small steps towards Paul. They were the deathly silent ones he used while hunting, calculating and predatory. Star shot a pleading glance to Dwayne, who had tiredly fallen into the role of referee over the years, breaking up any squabble the broke out. Any one he wasn't involved in, that was. The quiet vampire sighed heavily. He had just pulled Marco off of Paul, and that was no small feat, but David was harder to restrain by far.<p>

Against his instincts, David gave Paul a chance to redeem himself.

"You wanna run that one by me again?"

Paul, oblivious to the death threat looming over him in a tricked-out trench coat, took a moment to blearily battle his lack of sobriety and form a cognitive sentence.

"You know," He slurred, gesticulating to no avail. "One of the things, with the piercing and the chain and whatever…"

"An earring?" Star asked, incredulous. "You want an earring?"  
>"That's the one!" Paul beamed.<p>

Marco nearly died laughing. David made an exasperated noise, swatting Paul in the arm. He had been hoping for a reason to start a fight. He hadn't been in a decent rumble in what seemed like ages.

"You're drunk, Paul. I thought we agreed you would stop making life choices while impaired."

"Am not!"

"Oh yeah? C'mon, you're wasted and it's light out. You're not stabbing anything through your ear tonight. Go to bed."

The blonde vampire shook his head firmly, scrambling to his feet. "I'm not gonna do it, Star will!"

"I will?"

"You don't have to, sister," Dwayne said, bemused. "He'll pass out in a few minuets anyway."

"Pleeeeeeeeeeease?" Paul begged.

"All I have is my other earring," Star shrugged. "I never got to finish."

"It's cool, I just want the one. I'll swap it out when I find a better one."

Star, as she usually did when making any sort of decision, glanced to David. He waved her away with a gloved hand, that unreadable smirk playing at his lips.

"Whatever. I'm going to bed, and I'm not going to be the one to drag your sorry asses out of the cave tomorrow. Don't kill him, Star."

Paul whooped triumphantly and flopped down on her bed, grinning like a child on Christmas. Star smiled absently, wrapping her shawl tighter around her. Paul was insane, but he brought a sort of light to the cave. He was the only one of her brothers that didn't fall into week-long brooding spells for no apparent reason. Or lived perpetually in a sort of bi-polar ambiguity, like David.

Star retrieved a needle from her sewing bow and heated it over the flame of one of her many candles. Paul squirmed and wouldn't shut up about if it was going to hurt of not, but she finally managed to secure the earring in his ear without incident. Utterly pleased with himself, Paul skipped out to meet Marco and Dwayne, grinning like a self-satisfied schoolboy.

Suddenly the idea of pierced ear didn't seem so laughable to Marco, and his face fell into envy.

"Aw…." The curly-headed blonde vampire whined, "I want one!"

**Review and I'll give you Marko ;)**


	2. Marco

-1**Hello loyal slaves to the fandom! Wow, its really been a while since I updated…I guess you could say I've been on sabbatical from fanfic in general. College applications and all that…Anyway, I promised you all Marco if you reviewed, and everyone so graciously obliged. So here he is, along with a couple other familiar faces. Please, enjoy!**

_**Any and all feedback is cherished, but flames will also be mocked and posted on Facebook for others to mock. Love to my haters ;)**_

Marco sat on Star's bed, gnawing at his thumbnail with the usual mixture of nubile curiosity and undisguised malice. She had allowed him the privilege of entering her space, but kept one eye on him as she heated a new needle over her collection of candles. In the beginning, David had very emphatically warned the others what would happen to them if they were to harass Star or enter her space unbidden. She had gradually given them all the privilege of arriving unannounced, David almost immediately, then Dwayne shortly after. It had taken longer for Star to convince herself that Paul had no intention of eating her up (whether literally of figuratively) but now she sometimes let him visit with her early in the mornings, just before bed. But only when David was gone. He had a pronounced jealous streak and Paul was no small flirt.

Marco was an entirely different story. Despite being the baby of the bunch, Star was more afraid of Marco than she had ever been of any of the other Boys. He was quiet and forever smirking, almost cute, in a little boy sense. But she had seen him feed, knew his brutality and joy in killing to far surpass his older brothers. She had no illusions about the nature of her family, they were murderers, and they enjoyed it. But Marco was a cut-and-dry sadist beneath the innocent veneer, and his biting words and petty tricks made him all the more detestable to her. Maybe someday she would get used to Marco, maybe someday she might even like him, but the fact still remained that she got a chill down her spine whenever he smiled at her.

She could feel his eyes on her back as she heated the needle, and glanced over to face it head on. He was grinning.

"What?" She demanded.

Marco's grin merely widened. "I know something you don't."

"Oh yeah?" She muttered. "Well keep it to yourself."

"I see things."  
>A familiar and unpleasant tingling crackled along her skin, and she instinctively glanced to Laddie, out cold in bed. She rarely felt directly threatened by Marco herself, but she didn't like him around cherished urchin. The other boys were fine, Hell, Dwayne was practically a father to the kid. But she kept Laddie as far away from Marco as possible, and she wasn't doing a very good job of it now.<p>

"Is that right? What do you see, Marco?"

His voice was saccharine, terrifyingly so. "I see you. In the mornings. And sometimes at dusk."

She bristled. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure you do. It nearly blinds you, but you still do it. I know that, too. I know lots of things."

Star scowled at him behind a veil of dark curls. She had developed a bad habit over the past few weeks of sneaking out to the mouth of the Cave to watch the sun rise. It was a stupid, human desire, but in all honesty she missed the sun. She could remember its nourishing radiance on her upturned face, but now it burned her, stung her skin and sent spots dancing in her eyes. She couldn't take it for very long, but she could stand the pink flush of morning or the indigo hues of late afternoon, and it was worth the pain.

No one should have known. She was careful about it, always stayed up later than everyone else and woke up sooner just for that fleeting glimpse…but Marco must have seen her, tailed her down to the mouth of the cave and discovered her secret. This frightened her. If David knew…

"What is this, blackmail?" She demanded, keeping her voice down so she wouldn't wake Laddie.

Marco shrugged, pointing to one of the mismatched earrings she had laid out. "I want that one."

He was done tormenting her. For now.

She swallowed her anger, piercing his ear with a bit more enthusiasm than completely necessary. He whimpered at her helplessly as she clasped the bauble in his ear, but she was immune to his plays for pity. Pitying Marco was dangerous, no matter who you were.

Seeing she would not be swayed in her hating him, Marco broke into a childish lit of laughter, kissing her dryly on the neck. His lips were like ice.

He smiled at her revulsion, winding a finger through his blonde curls.

"Don't worry little sister, it'll be our secret. Wouldn't want David to find out that his shining Star wants to live in the daylight, would we?"

"Go away, Marco," She whispered. "I want to be left alone."

"Now I don't believe that. You can't stand to be alone, admit it. That's why you joined us, that's why you tote that kid around like a handbag, that's why you love David no matter how bad he gets. You killed yourself in a effort to never be lonely and now your seeing that death is merely another word for solitude.

He stood, sliding his patched jacket back on and speaking with a little more bite in his voice, his true colors showing through for a moment.

"Thanks for the earring, _Star_."

He stopped on the way out to brush a lock of hair away from Laddie's forehead, smiling fondly down at the boy. Star felt her heart lurch. No. Not Laddie. As God as her witness, she would save Laddie from all this, one way or another. Marco beat her to it, the awful truth she had been avoiding religiously.

"Pretty boy, isn't he? Pity he'll never get any bigger. Won't that be awful for him? To be so old, so young, forever?"

"Get away from him," She hissed.

Marco merely laughed, that damnable, terrifying sound, then disappeared out her curtains. Left alone in the dark, Star felt an unwelcome lump build in her throat. Wiping hot tears off her face, she silently climbed into bed alongside her sleeping ward, gently draping an arm over his sleeping form. She willed the essence of evil to dissipate from him, but couldn't help but wonder how long it would take for his surroundings to corrupt the goodness within.

"Oh my love," She murmured into his hair. "What have I done to us?"

**Ah, the deceptive charm of Marco...Dwayne's up next, boys and girls, so I do hope to get enough reviews to make it worth the while. And whoever can give me the shape of David's earring for future use gets a shout-out in the next update :]**


	3. Dwayne

**Evening all and sundry! So here's my next chapter, a little sooner updated than the last one. Bunches of thanks for the great reviews I got, they're what keep me going. And I would like to give a very big round of applause to sammyemerson15 and SunlitMercy for their help in answering my last trivia question; it's going to come in handy real soon.**

**Alright then. Let's get this show on the road! **

Dwayne was something else. For the longest time, Star didn't know what to make of him. For starters, There was the whole no-talking thing. It was a stark contrast to the others; David and Marco always had some smart-ass remark to make, usually playing off one other perfectly, and once Paul got started you couldn't get him to shut up. But Dwayne was content to linger behind and watch, only speaking when it really mattered, and even then only softly.

Then there was his relative intelligence. No offense to the others, but their thoughts usually didn't exceed dinner, how good dinner looked, or who the Hell stole my riding gloves. Dwayne, as distracting as the aforementioned subjects were to him, could be downright profound when the mood struck him. He was also a few years older than all the others, and biologically had already crossed the line from hyperactive teenage boy into a somewhat settled young man. Compounding on all of this was his strange, fleeting sense of morality which could surface at the oddest of times. This never stopped him from taking down a kill, of course, but he would sometimes glare at Paul when he had stolen one too many albums from the record store or guide something distinctly underage out of David's line of sight on the boardwalk.

So what Star couldn't understand was why someone who thought things through as much as Dwayne, especially someone almost too old to be led astray by David's classic "Keep up and you'll never have to grow up," line, would choose this life. There was something here she wasn't seeing, but Dwayne wasn't one to talk about his past. Still, it never stopped her from trying.

"Did you have family, Dwayne? You know, before?"

He was sitting cross legged on her bed, popping the shoddy stitching out of one of his jackets with a pocketknife.

"Everyone's got family," He muttered. Then, looking at his jacket in disgust, "Leave it to Marco to sew something up half-assed. I've had this thing for sixty four years and he ruins it in a half hour…"

"No, I mean it. Did you have any sisters or brothers? A girlfriend of something? A kid? You're old enough to have a kid aren't you?"

A bitter smile touched his lips. "We're all old, Star."

"Dwayne!" The voice was Laddie's. He had been in the next room playing and hadn't heard Dwayne come in. Now he leapt onto Star's bed, tackling Dwayne from behind and hugging him tightly. The vampire laughed, wrestling Laddie down and putting him in a headlock.

"Laddie's my kid. Aren't you Laddie?"  
>"Yeah!'<p>

Star smiled. David had allowed her to 'keep the kid' as a sort of consolation prize for having to sever all other connections with her mortal friends. It gave her someone to baby and look out for, further displacing her ability to use her maternal instincts on the Boys, as Max had been hoping. To most of them, Laddie was a toy for Star to mother, but not Dwayne. He treated him like a little person, and Laddie clung to him like the father he had been denied.

"Where you been?" The boy demanded.

"Out."

"With David?"

"That's right."

Laddie pouted. "You were hunting, weren't you? You promised you'd take me next time!"

Star felt her stomach twist into a knot. Laddie's eagerness to please and imitate his older brothers was only natural, but in this instance it was also dangerous and damming. Something dark sparked in Dwayne's eyes, but he blinked it away, running a rough hand over Laddie's mop of hair.

"I didn't say next time, kid, I said when you're older."

"But I want to be one of you!"

Dwayne met Star's eyes, squarely placing blame. She bit her lip hard in guilt. Why had she drug him into this?

Dwayne caught Laddie's chin, apprising him. "Well you look like a solid little man to me. You're fine just how you are, Laddie. When you hit thirteen and start to go stir crazy, then I'll start letting you stay up past bedtime."

"You're not my dad," Laddie scowled, but it was an empty threat. Dwayne cuffed him on the ear.

' "I'm the closest thing you've got, kid. Now go play. Let me talk to Star."

"Kay!" Laddie chirped. He wrapped his arms around Dwayne's neck and hugged him tightly. Dwayne rolled his eyes, but hugged him back. The others gave him Hell for it, but he really did care about the lost pup who nipped at their heels, always wanting to play with the big kids. He just didn't understand how dangerous the game was yet.

Laddie scrambled off the bed and disappeared off into the darkness of the Cave, no doubt to torment Paul. Paul was next on the list of vampires with the most tolerance for him, Laddie just had to time his appearances right. Marco just pretended the eager nine-year-old didn't exist, and David rarely spoke to him outside of one-word commands. Laddie liked this just fine. David absolutely terrified him, but he also looked up to him and had a deep need to please the man who would become his leader.

In Laddie's absence, Dwayne pulled a carton of cigarettes out of his pocket and lit one. He didn't smoke as much as the rest, but when he did he never bothered buying his own pack. He usually just stole from David, then watched contentedly as the head vampire ripped the Cave apart the next morning looking for the unopened carton that he swore had been there the night before.

Dwayne pointed his cigarette off in Laddie's general direction.

"This is your doing."

"Dwayne…"

"I don't want to hear it, Star. You brought that kid into this and now you're holding him in limbo. You have to make up your mind sooner or later, because I want do it for you. Go all the way, be one of us forever, or do the smart thing and get yourself and Laddie as far away from this place as you can."

"You know I can't do that," She muttered.

"No one says you can't just get up and leave right now, sister."

She looked at him levelly, dark eyes swirling with emotion. "I have nowhere to go. I'm a half-vampire runaway with an orphaned, nocturnal eight-year old."

"There are shelters," Dwayne sighed, familiar with this argument. "You're old enough to get a job, and Laddie doesn't need much. Or, here's a novel idea, why don't you just go back to Fresno to your parents, get Laddie in a home with a real Mom and Dad…"

Star rolled her eyes, curling up a nearby wicker chair in a pool of gypsy skirts.

"Yeah, that'll go over well. Hey, mom and dad, long time no see! Sorry for running off to the beach with my abusive boyfriend at the age of fifteen, check out this nifty orphan kid I found! And did I mention we're vampires?"

"There are ways around that," Dwayne said flatly. "You could talk to those psycho Rambo kids down at the comic book store about it; sometimes I think they know more about us than we do…"

"It wouldn't work," She whispered. "They would find you. And what if my parents don't live there any more? Or what if I couldn't get Laddie into a good foster home-"

"He doesn't love you, Star," Dwayne said softly, cigarette smoke swirling around his features. The words fell like lead weights into Star's chest, piercing deep the heart of the matter. She shakily hooked a stray curl behind her ear.

"I thought we were talking about my parents."

Dwayne rubbed his face, hating himself for always caring, no matter what troubled soul crossed his path. He was a vampire for God's sake, she could deal with her own problems. Still…

"No. You were using your parents to evade the one real reason you don't ditch this miserable existence. You might have seen it, it's about 6'2, platinum blonde hair, miserable temper?"

"David loves me," Star shot back.

Dwayne lowered his voice, leaning in to stress his meaning.

"David is a predator, Star. He runs on whim and adrenaline and lust and anger. He almost killed you when he first met you."

"But he changed his mind!"

"Because you became _useful _to him, do you understand? You're decorative company and bait for hard to get at male prey. He dresses you up so you can lure in our next meal, then delights in the fact that you are his and his alone."

"They've been other girls," Star countered. "Just like me, I know it. But he kept me, he cares about me!"

"Keeping you isn't enough, Star," Dwayne whispered. "Someday, you'll anger him and suddenly you won't be so special anymore. And for all my sins and shortcomings, I refuse to face the day when we find your body at the bottom of a ravine and David standing over you."

Star felt tears sting her eyes and stood in a huff to leave, but Dwayne caught her wrist and made her turn to face him. His dark eyes bored into her heart as he spoke, quietly and levelly.

"You asked me if I ever had a family. I did. Her name was Ilanna. She was two months pregnant and had just left me the night I met David. He twisted what was meaningful to me around in my head, convinced me to drink from the damned bottle. Ilanna was the first thing I saw afterwards and she…got in the way. I woke up with her blood on my hands. David thought it was funny." He squeezed her wrist pleadingly, pulling her down on the bed. He set a hand on the side of her face.

"Do you understand what I'm telling you, Star?"

She nodded pitifully, tears dripping down her face as she leaned her head into his chest. Her cheek collided with something cold and hard, and she looked up, wrapping fingers around the small trinket that hung always round his neck. It was a polished claw, white as ivory, on weathered leather string.

"Was this hers?"  
>"Yeah. Only thing I took off the body before I ditched town. She always said it was some sort of good luck charm…"<p>

Suddenly the strained leather snapped, and the claw tumbled into Star's hand. She gasped.

"Oh I'm so sorry!"  
>Dwayne laughed. "No, it's alright. I've had it for damn near a hundred years. I just don't know how I'm going to keep it on me now…"<p>

Suddenly Star's face lit up in a smile, and she retrieved a shining needle from her sewing kit.

"I think I have an idea…"

**Oh, back-story is so tasty! There's only one Boy left, ladies and gents, and I think we all know who it is. Please review and you'll have him soon.**


	4. David

**Oh my Glee, crash queens and motor babies, where has the time gone? I've abandoned you, and I am truly sorry. It's these gorramn college applications, they eat your soul. It's been…gosh, months. I keep telling myself I'm going to update, but then I end up reblogging picture of members of My Chemical Romance on Tumblr, and it just doesn't happen. Anyway…**

**This is for all you faithful who kept subscribing and reviewing in my hiatus, and the fantastic repeat offenders and mentors who I have forsaken. Forgive me, Lost Boys and Girls; I certainly hope David can make up for it. **

**CURTAIN UP!**

Crying had never been Star's strong suit. Tears seemed pointless to her, but still they came unbidden at the slightest provocation and oftentimes abandoned her completely when they were truly appropriate. But they were always cold, as if crystals on her eyelashes had melted in the heat of her emotions and tricked down her face like brooks in the winter.

She cried now, collapsed on her bed like a rose tossed to the ground and trampled underfoot. She wished she could say why, but the answer was unclear. She just knew her heart was heavy and frozen in her heart, aching with every beat. Was this what dying felt like? Perhaps there was a way for the spirit to die while the body lived on, perhaps that was to be her curse…At least she was alone. Marco and Paul were out drinking, and Dwayne had taken Laddie for a ride, so she was safe from the boy's concern. She never cried in front of him, under any circumstances. A child should never have to see his mother cry.

Suddenly a voice, heavy with authority and hot with mischief, sounded behind her. It was velvet woven through steel, a deadly old-world charm mixed haphazardly with the bluntness of today's youth.

"Star."

It was neither a command nor a statement, more of a summoning. She inclined her head at that voice, could almost feel the physical grip it had on her heart. She bit back the instinct to respond with a demure eagerness and said nothing.

"What are you doin', Star?"

She smiled, and for a moment the heat in that voice melted the ice in her heart.

"Just thinking."

David was in front of her before she heard him move, his footfalls languid and silent as always. He took his time running a bare hand down her check, savoring the sensation of her skin against his own. He had taken off the gloves that were worn nearly 24/7, the supple pieces of worn leather that he had refused to replace throughout the years. They hid deep scars crisscrossing his wrists, the ugly razor bites that admitted to a weaker time in life. He had been suicidal when Max found him, bleeding out on a street corner in Detroit. Star knew, and she could tell from the way Marco sometimes looked at David that he did too, but she doubted the others did. David was forever calm, ever dominant, ever in control, but everyone had their ghosts. David just didn't like to admit that his still haunted him.

He brushed his thumb across her lips and tipped her chin up so her eyes met his own. She knew them well, polished pieces of agate which never wavered and always lied. They held the beauty of a frigid spring and the precise sharpness of an executioner's knife. His lips spread into a lopsided smile, on that no one, however naive, ever mistook for innocent.

"Your thoughts hardly ever come with tears, babe," He muttered, roughly kissing the saltwater droplets off her cheeks. He sat down beside her, and she reached out to run pale fingers through his long hair. Had her hands always been so alabaster and frail?

"I thought you were out with Paul and Marco."

"Ditched them on the boardwalk. They're wasted and hungry; they won't miss me."

He leaned in and nuzzled her neck, a concerning smile in his voice as he playfully bit her earlobe.

"I wanted to come see you, Star. You haven't been yourself lately. Marco tells me things…"

Star resisted the urge to draw away from him, caught somewhere between revulsion and lust, panic and relief.

"Marco's Marco," She whispered with a forced smile, trying to sound as if she didn't' care, as everything was fine. "You know how he loves his stories."

She turned his face towards her, leaning in to kiss him, trying to fix things the way they always did. David let his mouth graze her own, then pulled away sharply, winding his fingers tightly into her hair. She bit back a cry of shocked pain, and he looked at her levelly, unwavering.

"What aren't you telling me, Star?"

His voice was hard but unthreatening, secure in the fact that this mere presence would bend her to his will.

"Nothing!" She pled, angry at her tears but weeping all the same. "You know how Marco is! He hates me, David, he's only trying to make trouble!"

"He says you watch the sun. He says you want to leave."

"I only miss the day, David," She rasped, trying to calm herself down and convince him of her fidelity. "I miss the sun, but nothing else. I love you, David. I'll never leave you!"

His eyes blazed for a moment, then softened, as if he accepted her explanation. He let go of her hair, taking her face in his hands and kissing her sweetly on the mouth. "I believe you," He muttered, smiling at her. "I just can never tell sometimes…"

"You love Marco more than me," She whined, and he kissed the tears off her face.

"It isn't the same," He protested, and pushed her back onto the bed.

In that moment, as she kissed him back in an effort to protest her innocence, she hated him. Truly and legitimately, for the first time, hated him. The heat in his words and his body set her hate on fire, sending shooting through her body like white-hot lightning. It took hold of her, and she pushed him away forcibly.

David rocked back on his knees, suddenly tense again. "What the Hell, Star?"

She bristled, ready to scream at him or hit him or do something just as stupid, to take out all her anger at this coldness, both his and the one of her living death. But then she thought better of it, and formed her rage into heavy, unsatisfying words that dropped from her lips like lead pebbles.

"Stop. Hurting me."

David almost laughed, his mouth tweaking up into his trademark devilish smirk, but then it dropped away.

"Star. Please."

She ignored his summoning, ignored the warning laced like poisoned sugar into his tone, and drew her knees up to her chin. She swept back her untamable curls with shaking hands, forcing steel into her voice.

"You can't keep hurting me like that. It's not right. I love you, Daivd. I'm yours. But you can't mistreat your toys."

The vampire slid off the bed an onto the ground at her feet, kneeling in front of her. He set a hand on her knee, looking up into her face. It was a gentle, loving position, one that perfectly reflected his manic disposition when it came to those around him. Star never knew if David, when she saw him next, would kiss her or scream at her or cry in her arms. He acted similarly with the other Boys, but they had the privilege of demanding some semblance of respect, as they were all brothers in arms when it came down to it. Star was still and outsider, still something uniquely David's, closer and yet further away from him than the others would ever be. He was her protector but also her tormentor, like an unpredictable father figure with a penchant for dubious intentions and black leather. She was utterly at his mercy.

"I'm sorry," He murmured, his voice the rasp of a cat's tongue against bare skin. He took her cold hands in her own and kissed then until they were warm. It was an accurate representation of their lives in general. Star was the stately ice that melted in the heat of David's fire. But how long could she last until she evaporated altogether?

Her lips tightened, as if preparing to smile, and she reached out to touch his perfect face. "I forgive you."

It was a lie, but a sweet lie it was, and David took it willingly from her mouth with a chaste kiss. Then he reached into his jean's pocket and smiled.

"I almost forgot." He pulled out a dangling bronze earring and held it out to her, watching the beaten feather on a silver loop catch the light and wink, as if it could see the irony in their co-dependence.

"Pulled it off a kill in the bay. I like it…The other guys are running around with them," He smiled. "I can't look left out of my own gang."

She spent the next few minuets piecing his ear and making some very important decisions. As she cleaned the blood off the earring and heated the needle, she mulled over the question Dwayne had faced her with the night previously. Could she truly leave? If she could find the power to break out of David spell, to dodge Marco's taunts and Paul's catcalls on her way out the door, could she survive in the world? She had been so content to hide behind the novelty of her quasi-vampirism, to wrap herself up in the warmth of David's greatcoat and smile at his one-lined like a good girl should, that she had almost forgotten that hardened autonomy of her time of the streets. She had kept Laddie clothed and fed for nearly five months before David rolled into her life on his souped-up motorcycle, but could she do it again?

When she had finished, David kissed her in the crook of her neck and smiled. He hadn't even flinched during her admittedly awkward fumbling with the needle. Sometimes she wondered if her felt pain. Or love, for that matter.

"I've got something special to ask of you, babe."

"Hmm?" She asked, trying to sound mildly interested.

He turned her wrist over and kissed her pulsating skin. "Max found someone, a woman."

Star was admittedly surprised. "He wants to turn her?"

"Eventually. I'm not to keen on the idea, but he's been restless as of late and it might keep him out of my life for a while. He treats me like I'm his kid or something…"

"He _did _turn you, Daivd."

"I was twenty-six then and I'm a Hell of a lot older now. He can't run my god dam life." He sighed, fingering his new earring thoughtfully. "Anyway, this dame's got kids, right? A fourteen year old and some college age guy named Michael. I saw him on the boardwalk yesterday, some sullen Jim Morrison look-alike…Not to bad. Pretty sharp looking, easy on the eyes…Max wants him."

"I thought he wanted the woman."

"He does," David said, reaching out to touch her face. His hands were rough but somehow gentle, like sandpaper that had grown pliable after years of use. His grin was almost sinister. "But there's no way to get to a mother quite like getting to her children first. We need Michael, Star. We need new blood. He's young. He's lonely. You're beautiful. You know what to do."

She gave a bitter smile. She knew all too well. "Just like all the others, then?"

"Catch his eye. Bring him to me. I'll do the rest."

Star bit back a poisonous laugh. Oh, David was very good at what he did. It didn't matter who you were, how old, or what gender, he would intoxicate you and draw you in until you were too far into the dark to realize where the light went to.

She tried, just one last time, to reason with the monster who caged her heart.

"You don't have to do this, David. Leave the boy alone, let Max find another woman. Someone willing. We don't need anyone else."

"But I want him, Star. I've seen him. He'll be a interesting diversion, sport like I haven't had in an eternity."

Disgust welled up inside her. "I don't like this game, David."

He grinned. "But it's my favorite, and you play it so well."

He crushed his mouth against her own one last time, ignoring the fact that she drew away from him, then stood abruptly.

"We're going, Star. I'm taking you to the Boardwalk tomorrow night. Wear something nice. I'll be watching."

And with that thinly veiled threat, he turned don his heel and strode out. Star curled up on her bed, pressing her fists to her eyes as if they could stop the waterfalls of tears gushing down her cheeks. She sobbed silently, balling her fingers tightly into the sheets of her bed, knowing David couldn't hear her but fearing he would all the same. When she had finally calmed down enough to breathe regularly, Star drew her arms and her skirts around her and retreated into her mind.

She couldn't break way from him alone, she simply couldn't do it. For all of Dwayne's quiet encouragement of her endeavors, he had been poisoned by David's thrall too long and would be no help in the end. Laddie was too young, and beyond him there was no one else. Unless…

"Michael," She whispered, savoring the name as it rolled like something forbidden in a whisper off her lips. She knew the name, it came from the Bible. Michael was an archangel; he was a bearer of good news and the general that overthrew Satan's reign in heaven. She needed an angel right now to save her from the darkness. Maybe he was supposed to find her, maybe David was right in saying that there was something special about this one. Maybe he could see the light within her that she had forsaken so long ago. Maybe he would stay.

Maybe…

**And we all know what happens next :)**** Thanks for staying with me through the end, folks, it's been a long strange trip. Please review, and don't forget to check out my other fics and my Tumblr at .com. PEACE!**


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